The Wager

In 1741 a British man-of-war wrecked on an island off Patagonia. Thirty survivors reached Brazil months later and told one story; three more reached Chile and told another, accusing the first of mutiny and murder. Grann reconstructs both from logs, journals and the court martial that followed, and lets the contradiction stand. It is a shipwreck narrative that turns into an argument about who gets believed.